Female Peacemakers Demand Immediate End to Yemen Conflict

Female peacemakers have called on the international community for an immediate end to fighting and to the transfer of arms to Yemen, calling the human cost of the conflict ‘incalculable’, The Guardian reports.

A letter demanding an immediate end to hostilities in Yemen was delivered to 10 embassies in The Hague on Wednesday [April 29, 2015].

Delegates from the Women’s Power to Stop War conference, held in the city this week, delivered letters to the embassies of Britain, the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Russia, China, Germany, Egypt and France, and to representatives of the European commission in the Netherlands, outlining seven demands.

The letter called for an immediate end to fighting, and to the transfer of arms to Yemen. It called for safe access for humanitarian aid agencies to deliver vital goods and services, and safe passage for the thousands of people who have been displaced by the fighting.

The letter also demanded that those who have violated international law be held accountable, and called for governments to negotiate a lasting peace, based on the outcomes of the 10-month consultation – the national dialogue – that sought to avert conflict in the country in 2013.

There was also a call for international governments, and the newly appointed UN envoy to Yemen, to engage with Yemeni women and civil society activists.